


Never Again

by tempeck16



Series: Not Alone [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Family, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Rhodey and Pepper are adults, Series, Sick!Tony, Tony is the youngest, Tony runs SI
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-29
Updated: 2012-10-29
Packaged: 2017-11-17 07:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempeck16/pseuds/tempeck16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony clings to Steve like his last lifeline and Steve wouldn't be anywhere else than with Tony at that very moment. </p><p>Steve realizes that it’s not just the meeting, or the self-destructive behavior, or how horrible that Tony must feel. </p><p>Steve realizes that all of it is the future ulcer of emotion that Tony won’t ever show to anyone. </p><p>Steve realizes that Tony is only showing him this now, because he trusts Steve, and Steve’s determined not to let him down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Again

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Avengers, or the characters, but i wish I did. This story was in fact inspired by the picture that you can see by visiting this link: http://dsmiler7.tumblr.com/page/4 , it basically has Steve holding Tony. This amazing piece of art was drawn by dsmiler. Thank you for reading and stay tune for more.

“Where is he? I cannot believe he is doing this to me today of all days! When I find him, Oh God, I’m gonna- I can’t even believe!”

This is what Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanov, and Thor Odinson had been listening to for what literally seemed like hours, but in all actuality was more like twenty minutes. This scene was not particularly new for any of them.

As members of the school council on campus; the five out six college students who were currently lounging in The Center, a place that they kind of made their HQ at NYU, were not unfamiliar with their leader, Steve Rogers, A.K.A The Captain, being furious with the often late, and irresponsible Tony Stark, A.K.A Iron Man, called as such because of his smooth, robotic like genius and manner in intense situations.

They each had their own little nicknames that had something to do with what they did in the counsel, and since being put together by the Assistant Dean, Mr. Coulson; the six students had formed a sort of group that were now kind of inseparable.

Unless of course there’s a school committee meeting that both the leader and co-leader of the school council are supposed be at in ten minutes; a meeting that determined the funding for most of the campus sanctioned events, and was with Dean Fury, and Assistant Dean Coulson, that they had to attend.

Because in that case, they were screwed, because Tony, the co-leader, was not there. 

“Cap., maybe Stark is just stuck in-“

“Barton, if the next word out of your mouth is ‘traffic’, I’m gonna lose it.”

“… A stock meeting?” Clint says to alleviate pressure. Natasha glances up from where she is seated on the love seat directly across from where Clint is crouched like a bird on one of the many chairs in the room. She quirks an eyebrow at him and a corner of her mouth tilts up in amusement. For Nat, this was as close to breaking out in hysterical laughter as anyone was ever going to see.

“If he was going to be late, or detained he would have called, maybe there’s something wrong?” Bruce Banner, ironically for a guy with the worst temper in the world, the voice of reason was almost always his.

“Aye, the man of iron is often irresponsible, but he would not let his comrades down in their time of need.” Thor was a foreign student from some European country that probably snowed a lot. No one in there little group had ever asked him why it always sounded like he was speaking old English; it was something that they just kind of came to terms with.

Steve considered the possibility that maybe not everything that went wrong on God’s green earth was Tony Stark’s fault, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Steve knew that since Tony had become proprietor of his father’s company, StarkIndustries, despite his age not breaking the limit yet, at seventeen; that Tony had a lot more on his plate than usual, and that meant that he probably wasn’t eating, or sleeping, or doing anything but paperwork, and encasing himself in his workshop for hours, maybe days on end.

“Somebody tell me that you’ve seen him in the last couple of days?” Steve asks as he gears up to call Tony’s Starkphone, again. For a guy who’s family is the leading inventors in cellphone technology, Tony rarely answered his phone… like, ever.

Steve was starting to worry, and despite Tony’s flippant tendencies, everyone in the group worried about him the most because he was the youngest by far at the age of seventeen, amongst the nineteen and twenty year olds of the group.

“I had some bastardized version of lunch with him on Monday.” Clint says as he pulls out his pocketknife, that he really shouldn’t have in HQ, but didn’t care enough to abide by that particular rule anyway. “Why can’t that kid just learn to eat a sandwich like a normal person?” Pretty much everyone just ignores him, but kind of agrees.

“We were in the science lab on Tuesday night, after school, because of some robotics project that he’d been working on for a while. I asked him why he couldn’t just do it in the mansion work shop, and he said that it still… it still felt weird to be in there…” Bruce trailed off, as he put a bookmark in place in the book he had been reading.

They all gave pause when Bruce said that. Ever since this last summer when Tony’s parents were killed in a tragic car accident, it was always hard to talk about the incident, or anything relating Tony to his parent’s death. They had all tried to be there for him, but in true Stark fashion, Tony had shook off all the touchy-feely ‘emotions’ and bottled up all his sadness and anger into something that will probably be an ulcer when he grew up…. If he grew up, what with the way that he always got at parties… Sometimes Tony was the definition of shitfaced.

“I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since Wednesday morning, and Pepper and Rhodey haven’t seen him since yesterday, they said he was kind of in rough shape though. They were going to pry, but ever since Tony upgraded the mansion with that J.A.R.V.I.S. AI of his, no one can seem to get through to him unless it’s business related.” Steve didn’t even see Natasha get her phone out, let alone call Pepper and Rhodey for their input.

Being the assistant to the Maria Stark foundation left Pepper Potts in charge of a majority of Tony’s family’s charities, not to mention that she had known Tony most of his life. And Rhodey was, Colonel James Rhodes of the United States Air force, but he was also Uncle Rhodey to Tony, and the military liaison to the StarkIndustries. Both were very invested in Tony’s life, and were always there to look out for him.

Despite being the most deadly of all of them, Natasha, or Black Widow, was often the one who kept track of what everyone was up too. It was hard enough having six people run the whole of student council, but being disorganized about it, was just a crime.

Thor doesn’t say anything, and looking up, Steve sees that it was because he was entranced by a pop tart that he had somehow snuck into the room.

“I haven’t even talked to him since…. God, I don’t even know when.” Steve sighed in disbelief. For someone who was supposed to be the leader, Steve felt like he really dropped the ball. Not only that, but he’d done it to Tony…

 _His_ Tony…

It was hard enough, daily, to remember that the little… well… crush that he had on Tony Stark of all people wouldn’t be reciprocated due to age, and gender preference, and a whole fuck-ton of things on a list as long as Steve’s arm, but also that Steve was supposed to be Tony’s best friend.

If Tony couldn’t trust Steve to have his back and actually check on him when he was in the throes of having his regular, self-destructive, irresponsible, incapable-of-taking-care-of-himself attitudes, then who would?

“Alright, I’m gonna go and see if he’s at home. If not, be ready to start a manhunt.” Steve says as he bends down to grab his backpack. “’Tash, Bruce you’ve got the meeting. Hawk, Thor be ready on standby in case you’re needed.” Steve left them all to his instructions as he drove his motorcycle to the Stark mansion, preparing himself for whatever trouble his best friend had gotten into this time.

Pulling up to the gigantic mansion was always a reality check for Steve. It’s not that he’s jealous of Tony, or his family’s money, it’s just weird to remember that after all is said and done at the end of the day, after classes, and hanging out with friends, and inventing something brilliant, or schmosing for the press, or even just movie night with the gang; that Tony still has to come back to the mansion… all by himself… all alone.

Steve hates that Tony has to be alone. He wants to make sure that Tony Stark is alright, all of the time. Steve makes it his personal mission sometimes, to make sure that Tony’s okay. What with everything that Tony’s been going through in the past few months, Steve doesn’t know where he dropped the ball, or how he could, but it makes him a little physically ill, none the less.

Steve makes his way up the long driveway, and to the front door of the impressively big mansion. He knows what’s coming up next, but he’s still utterly surprised when the voice of Tony’s sentient butler greets him at the door.

“Hello Master Rogers. How may I assist you today?” A proper, British tone rings through the foray as Steve opens the door and steps inside.

Steve doesn’t know why Tony made it British, but he supposed since he didn’t even have half of the brains it took to create what was essentially a learning life form inside of a computer, he wouldn’t fault the genius.

“Um… Hi, Jarvis… uh, have you- I mean, do you know where Tony is?”

Steve didn’t think he would ever get use to talking to the house, but he figured that he’d seen weirder things being friends with the people he was friends with.

“Why yes, Master Rogers, Master Stark is in his work shop. Would you like me to direct you there?”

‘His work shop? Since when did Tony have a work shop of his own?’ Steve thinks to himself. Because on the heed of what Bruce had said earlier about Tony not being able to go into the mansion’s work shop, Steve didn’t suppose that it would be any less off-limits since Bruce told them all that thirty minutes ago.

“It is down the third hall to your right, and once you’ve hit the library, take the stair case down two levels, and Master Stark’s work shop is next to the second and  final guest bedroom.” Jarvis says as Steve starts walking. The final guest bedroom? Well that settles it. There used to be three guest rooms on the second underground floor. Tony must have done some renovations so that the memories of his father didn’t tear him up inside while he worked on his projects-

“Sir?” Jarvis asks interrupting Steve from his inter-monologue.

“Uh… Yes, Jarvis?”

“I do not mean to alarm you, but for the past 36 hours, Master Stark has begun to present symptoms of an illness that he has not disclosed me too.”

“What?! Tony’s sick?” Steve’s heart rate seems to rocket out of his chest and guilt ached in his stomach. He knew it was probably bad, but he wasn’t prepared to hear that something could actually be ailing his best friend. “Can you… can you ask him if he’s alright?”

Jarvis seems to hesitate as if to relay to Steve that, ‘Duh, of course I’ve tried that. Why wouldn’t I have tried that?’ but after a pause Jarvis finally says, “Master Stark has been unresponsive to me for the last six hours, and he has not moved from his current position for the last two hours.”

At this Steve takes off at a dead run. He’s never in his life been so grateful for the conditioning that he’s meant to do in the off seasons after football is over. He reaches his destination in about four minutes flat as opposed to the ten minutes it should have taken him.

Once he reaches the door, there is an electronical whirl that Steve supposes is Jarvis because seconds later the security is bypassed on the high tech door, and Steve is let in.

The first thing Steve sees scares the shit out of him. It looked as though Tony had been busy, because the first thing to greet Steve at the door was a weird looking… well, it had to be a robot of some kind. It was made of some type of metal, and it had one arm looking thing waving up and down in a gesture of what Steve could only assume was distress.

Instead of asking any questions to Jarvis, or the new robot that was beeping and making frantic movements, Steve just follows the little bot where ever it is going, and hopes that it will take him to Tony.

Thankfully, it does.

Unfortunately, Tony looks like death warmed over and a little on the unconscious side, with his head down on his design desk, and his body trembling slightly.

Steve runs over to Tony and freezes. He wants to check on him and make sure that he’s living and everything, but as soon as he made his way to stand beside his seated best friend, Steve realizes that he had inadvertently stepped into what appeared to be ‘design central’. There were projects and designs everywhere. And when Steve said everywhere, he meant everywhere; on the tables, on the ground, taped to the walls… everywhere.

It pained Steve to see everything that Tony had gotten done or half done, when no one was around to make sure that he slept or ate anything.

Shaking out of his stupor, Steve bends close to Tony, crouching just behind the stool that Tony was on, and he puts his hand on Tony’s shoulder.

The affect is immediate.

Tony shoots up extremely, whip-lashy fast scattering papers, and tablets, and coffee cups everywhere. He’s breathing is hard, and his eyes are wide and slightly manic.

Steve was pushed back in a startled manner, falling back on his hunches, and fearing what would happen if he moved.

“Wha-…?” Tony mumbles distractedly. He looks dazed and sways a little in his seat. Not knowing for sure what woke him, Tony grabs for purchase on his stool, and then starts searching around for something that even he doesn’t know why he needs.

“Tony?” Steve can see the tense lines of Tony’s body just before the seventeen year old is yelling in freight, and falling backward off of his stool. That shocks Steve out of any revere he might have been in.

Tony’s eyes are once more frantic, and he looks at Steve as though he’s never seen him before. “S-steve? What are you- Why are you here? I mean, what are you… um, doing down here?”

‘Making more sense than usual.’ Steve thinks as he slowly comes to a position a few feet away from Tony, on all fours. “Tony, how long have you been down here?”

Tony physically struggles to interpret the question that Steve has asked him. It’s a struggle and Steve recognizes that. He cautiously puts his hand out and moves it forward in order to touch Tony’s arm. It’s then that Steve notices that Tony is not only shaking, but he also has a fine blush on his cheeks and above his nose.

Fever.

“Tony? Are you alright?” Steve’s eyes can’t help but glance down at the arc reactor that is firmly imbedded in Tony’s chest, and he’s happy to see that it’s not flickering, or dim, or anything else horrible. Ever since the accident that claimed his parent’s lives, and damaged his heart, Tony has had the arc reactor in the middle of his chest. He says that it was something that his dad was working on, that Tony finished while he was in the hospital over the summer. It gave everyone in the group heartache every time they saw it, but they had learned to live with it, because it, was now keeping Tony with them.

Steve reaches out further, “Tony?” Just as he’s about to wrap his fingers around Tony’s arm, there are a series of loud and obnoxious beeps coming from off to Steve’s left. This startles both Tony and Steve, and it cause Tony to shift back a little further, closer to the wall.

The bot from before that lead Steve to Tony comes closer to the both of them. It almost seems affront about the fact that Steve was trying to touch its master. It beeped and whirled around moving closer.

“Dummy! Cut it out.” Tony says, and this is the first coherent thing he’s spoken since he was startled out of sleep.

“Dummy?” Steve asks.

“It’s… he’s a new-, I made him.” Tony says as if that explains everything, and it kind of does.

The bot in question moves away after Tony yells at it, and Steve figures that they’ll deal with that later.

“Tony? Are you okay? You don’t look well.” Steve pulls his arm back because he feels like he’s scaring Tony and he doesn’t want to do that. “When you didn’t show up for school today, I-… we got worried.”

Tony squints his eyes a little and Steve realizes that Tony probably has some kind of headache or that the lights were too bright.

“School… What day is… School?” Tony says as he runs his hand through his unruly, hair. Steve thinks it’s kind of adorable, but he has bigger things to think about; especially when Tony suddenly shoots up like he’d been electrocuted. His eyes get a little wider, if possible, and he blurts out, “Oh my God! School, the- the meeting was today, right? Oh, God- I’m so sorry, I didn’t-“ He stands shakily and looks as though he immediately regrets it.

“Tony! Tony, calm down. The meetings covered. I’m here because we couldn’t find you. We were worried.” Steve says. He sees Tony sway dangerously, and barring Tony just listing over and passing out right there. Steve stands up so he’s right in front of Tony and puts his hands around his waist in order to keep him upright. Despite the extra support, Tony does start to collapse out of what Steve knows is probably a combination of extreme hunger, extreme exhaustion, and illness. Before Tony can fall to the ground, Steve pulls him in close to his body, instantly feeling the heat from his fever, and grips him tighter around the waist.

Instead of pulling back like the usual self-sufficient, callous Tony Stark that he usually is, Tony can’t help but letting his body weight rest on Steve as he loses all semblance of balance. It sort of catches Steve off guard, and soon he finds himself crouching down again with a sick, feverish, dazed looking Tony Stark clinging to him.

That’s when he starts to hear the half-sobs and he feels the shaking getting worse and worse. “Oh Tony, shh, shh it’s okay. You’re okay. I’m here.” Steve doesn’t really know what he’s saying or why he’s saying it, but he couldn’t help it. Especially when he hears the mantra of ‘I’m sorry’ that Tony can’t seem to stop saying.

Tony clings to Steve like his last lifeline and Steve wouldn’t be anywhere else than with Tony at that very moment. Steve realizes that it’s not just the meeting, or the self-destructive behavior, or how horrible that Tony must feel. Steve realizes that all of it is the future ulcer of emotion that Tony won’t ever show to anyone. Steve realizes that Tony is only showing him this now, because he trusts Steve, and Steve’s determined not to let him down.

Suddenly, Steve hears a techno beat that indicates that he has a text. Reaching back, and multi-tasking like a pro, Steve grabs his phone from his pocket, and sees that he actually has six texts, one from each of their friends, most likely inquiring on Tony’s status.

Being smart, Steve texts Natasha back that he found Tony, and that he seems sick. He tells her that he’s going to stay with Tony, and if anything happens that he’ll call them all. He also tells her to tell everyone else too so that he doesn’t have to re-text that five times.

With that taken care of, Steve realizes that Tony has gone quiet and limp against his shoulder. He carefully checks and sees that Tony has finally passed out from exhaustion.

Being extraordinarily careful, Steve places one hand underneath Tony’s backside and the other cradling his back and swiftly picks Tony up. It’s way too easy, and he curses mentally when he feels how light Tony has gotten. He’s definitely going to fix that.

Instead of traipsing all the way up stairs to Tony’s room, Steve picks one of the two guest bedrooms, and brings Tony soundlessly into the room. He gently places Tony on the sheets and watches as Tony grasps for him regardless of the fact that he had only just put him down. It’s kind of really adorable and Steve can’t help but smile a little.

Seeing how truly tired and flushed that Tony was looking, Steve gently removes the shirt that Tony was wearing due to all of the stains of oil and sweat that look like they came from more than 24 hours’ worth of use, and he takes off Tony’s shoes and socks too.

Steve moves Tony on the bed so that he’s lying somewhere in the middle, even for a guest bedroom, it’s still got a massively big bed, and then he pulls up the covers.

Stepping outside of the room, Steve feels ridiculous as he looks up and says as quietly as possible, as to not wake Tony, “Jarvis? Could you please alert me if there is a need for a medical intervention? I’m going to stay in here with him, but I want to make sure he gets to the hospital if he gets any worse.”

“Of course, Master Rogers. At the moment, Master Stark’s vitals are holding, and his temperature is at a steady 101.3 degrees, it does not seem to be rising.” Jarvis chirps back in an almost grateful tone. Steve doesn’t know if an AI can be grateful. He decides that he’ll ask Tony once he’s better.

Before Steve can go back into the guest bedroom, he feels a small tug on his pants, and looks down to see the bot from before. It’s sheepishly pulling to get Steve’s attention. He doesn’t know how, but Steve can kind of sense what the bot wants. Steve leans down and pets the bot on the arm thing and says, “Thank you for leading me to him, he’s going to be okay now, I’ve got him. And thank you too, Jarvis.” Steve says that last bit looking up at the ceiling.

“You are most welcome, Master Rogers. I am glad that you are here to take care of Sir now.”

With that Steve smiles and steps back into the guest bedroom. What he sees kind of breaks his heart. There’s Tony, in the middle of the way-to-large-for-him-bed kind of grasping around, as if looking for something. He’s shivering, and looks miserable with large dark circles under his eyes, offsetting the patches of bright red that are on his cheeks and above his nose. He’s whimpering a little and Steve distinctly hears his name once or twice.

Deciding to end the heart break, Steve sheds his over shirt and his shoes, and crawls up on the bed and under the covers with Tony. He moves close to Tony and easily wraps one arm underneath the feverish boy, and the other arm he wraps around Tony’s back, as Tony turns and leans into Steve’s chest. Steve run his hand in soothing circles on Tony’s back hoping to alleviate tension and warm him up. He feels pained by the way that he can sort of make out every one of Tony’s ribs, but he shakes that feeling off for now, just being grateful for the fact that he had found Tony, and that his- that Tony was alright.

Tony response to Steve’s touch immediately and sinks into Steve’s warm chest. Even in his exhausted, sickly state Tony realizes that he’s not alone anymore.

After a few moments, Tony settles down and is out for the count. It takes a few seconds of Steve watching Tony, using the arc reactor as a nightlight of sorts, before Steve drifts off to sleep too.

But before he does, his last thoughts, as he holds his best friend/charge/maybe boyfriend/maybe lover to his chest, he thinks, ‘Never again, will you be alone. Never again.’     

-fini-

 

 

        

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU!!!!! Please comment, or kudos. :)


End file.
